Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian organization that provides medical care to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care in over 70 countries.

We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF’s common mission.

Department

The Medical Unit in MSF New York is part of the Medical Department of Operational Center – Paris (OCP) and provides technical support for: Tropical Medicine, Infectious Diseases (including antibiotic resistance (ABR), medical article writing and publication and special projects, such as the Febrile Illness Diagnostic Program (FIDP).

Project

MSF and in particular OCP, is committed to providing hospital-based secondary and tertiary care to those ill and injured across the range of the organization’s mission contexts. For instance, surgical and neonatal programs are a major component of our hospital activity, MSF OCP leads the MSF movement in the number of surgical acts performed annually. In our projects in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, MSF performs life- and function-saving surgery for war- and accident-trauma. Additionally, MSF OCP assisted more than 60 000 births and admitted 12 000 newborns for in-patient care in 2016, the newborns being a particularly infection-susceptible population with known high mortality rates if their infections are not properly treated.

Infections of soft-tissue, bone, and bloodstream acquired either prior to hospitalization or in-hospital are a major challenge to the successful outcome for these patients, particularly considering the global problem of ABR. In recognition, MSF has made ABR a focus of operations, policy, and advocacy. The MSF OCP medical department has created a multi-disciplinary team to address ABR in its operations, including an infectious disease specialist, a microbiologist and an epidemiologist. For 2018, MSF OCP will finalize its 2018-2021 ABR roadmap (a model for MSF as a whole) which will focus on 4 pillars: antibiotic stewardship, infection control, the microbiologic identification of the etiology and drug-resistance patterns of the principle life-threatening infections encountered in our patient populations and operational research. In 2018, the ABR team will be based primarily in New York and an Infection Control Specialist (this role) will be added to provide expert support.

Tasks

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Within the ABR OCP roadmap goals, the infection control specialist will establish a framework for the policies and procedures of hospital-based infection prevention and control (IPC), focusing initially on hospital care.

The incumbent will be responsible for issues relating to IPC, including sterilization (quality of materials used by MSF, definition of standards, procedures and implementation) and the selection, procurement and use of material for it (hygiene and sterilization products, medical equipment).

In collaboration with other medical department referents: review and update current MSF OCP IPC policies and recommended practices, adapted to the context and specific activities of our hospital-based projects. This will include: minimum standards required of all hospital structures, which may include everything from ward layout, cohorting of patients, wound care practices, hand hygiene, barrier practices, hospital environment sources of pathogenic bacteria, etc.

Mapping of IPC in our projects and evaluation of IPC needs.

Make regular field visits to implement and evaluate performance of hospital IPC activities, sterilization and hygiene practices including working with hospital managers and operations to evaluate isolation/contact precautions capacity in existing and planned hospital structures that have microbiology capacity for IPC of patients with multidrug resistance (MDR) pathogens.

Work with surgeons, infectious diseases’ specialists, the pharma team and others to develop standard case definition for hospital-acquired tissue infections.

Work with the medical department ABR team to define the roles and responsibilities and training needs of personnel to establish, monitor, and reinforce basic infection control practices appropriate for all MSF OCP hospital structures as well as in specialized hospitals, contribute to the description and function of a multi-disciplinary hospital “ABR team” that coordinates and collaborates on microbiologic identification of antibiotic resistant organisms and antibiotic stewardship personnel to promote appropriate use of antibiotics. In addition, contribute to training materials for infection and ABR control adapted to OCP hospital levels and activities.

Briefings and debriefings of expatriates going and coming from relevant missions.

Respond to field queries about questions on hygiene sterilization, IPC including identification and control of hospital outbreaks of ABR.

Participation in the activities of the medical department:

Preparation of the annual and/or multiannual plan,

Participation in training,

Support to the HR department for the validation of CVs, volunteer placements in its area of ??competence.

Contribute to formulation of operational research questions relevant to IPC, including systematic review of nosocomial infections in resource-limited settings.

Collaborate with IPC-relevant partners, both within MSF including intersectionally and external to MSF regarding IPC in resource-limited settings (implementation, monitoring, evaluation). In relationship with MSF-USA:

Collaborate with the different departments in the NY office (programs, communications, fundraising, field HR, Access Campaign).